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[cornicen]

Just received invitation to renew my licence. I have to renew every 3 years as over 70. To make the application online (if 70+) it says: "Having your driving licence, national insurance number and passport (if you have one) details will help your online application."

Having filled out all the required info. and clicked "Next" (if not having a valid passport) I am informed: "Licence cannot be renewed. Sorry you cannot continue with your online application. Your licence is no longer valid and must be renewed. To do this the photo on your licence must be changed. It has not been possible to use your passport photo on your driving licence as DVLA must be able to confirm your identity online and your UK passport must be valid."

For a start, my licence is still valid - expires 21/02/2020. So presumably the photo is still available to the DVLA, and my appearance has not changed noticeably from 3 years ago. And it does say about the passport "if you have one"!

I'm pretty sure I renewed online 3 years ago (so no photo sent), and I haven't had a passport for decades. Is this just a glitch, and I should try again? Or is the leaflet wrong, and a valid passport is needed. Or does the DVLA database show my licence as invalid, when it isn't.

Any ideas?

[AlexB]

I carried out a PRoject Review of one of the DVLA (or whoever it was) in respect of some online applications for driving licencing, a few years ago

I recall that they are very keen to get as much on line as possible, but still held some staff to deal with queries and for those applications which are not possible on line

I would suggest that you bite the bullet and ring them. Have a hot drink and plenty of sandwiches......

[Wittsend]

 
Make sure they include all your entitlements, e.g. motorbike license (if you've passed that) and towing (you'll have "grandfather rights") - else they just go for the defaults 

I've never had a photo license, still have the paper version - presumably one has to provide an ID photo (if they can't use your passport image)
Check ...


 

[Sunny Jim]

I did my last one in the local Post Office who had a photo machine and sorted all the details there and then.

Sunny Jim

[Wittsend]

Good point - let's keep our local Post Offices open 

Use them or lose them ....



 

[cornicen]

My local Post Office is a very humble affair - no photo machine. I would have to flog into my nearest town (30 minutes away), find somewhere to park, walk to the PO with my arthritic hips, etc. - though I should be able to do it online, without the need for a current passport, according to the DVLA leaflet. Maybe I'll just give up driving...

The DVLA gets some stick on the Forum over vehicle licencing, but it's just crazy to be told my licence is no longer valid when it has three months to go. 

[Exile]

Even though I no longer go abroad, I renewed my passport a few weeks ago after not having one for several years.

At the time I wondered why I did it, but just thought it might come in handy one day.


This thread has now told me why I did it.


PS. If you go to the right kind of photo booth, they give you a "special" photo so you can just use the number printed on it to renew the passport. Put the number in the online form and your picture comes up automatically. (No idea how they do that!)

Received the passport in no time at all, once I'd sent them the (very) old one.

[Formerlyjeremy]

Did you get a blue passport?

[Dentman]

My recently acquired passeporto is still the wine colour but doesn't have the European Union thing in gold on front 

[Genem]

My recently acquired passeporto is still the wine colour but doesn't have the European Union thing in gold on front 

Which is weird because we are still members....

[w3526602]

Hi,

Sorry to have been absent for a few days ... PC glitch. This morning I discovered my lap-top will connect to the Internet provided I pull the       BT plug.   I will now try to go sort of OT (not sure if that is ON or OFF).

I taught Barbara to drive in Penang, in a 1951 Sunbeam Talbot 90. On returning to UK, she had one professional lesson in a Fo   rd Escort, and took her test in South Norwood in a dilapidated Mini ... and passed. She must have been close to being the first pass of 1971 ... there was still snow on the roads.

Due to her gammy arm (cack handed midwife), she was restricted to "a Motor Car and a Motor Tricycle".  She has never ridden a bicycle  , although she rode pillion on my bike in Penang ... Malaysia does not, or did not,
have a MOPED group, so my UK moped entitlement allowed me to ride a 185cc bike.
I only came off once ... actually I didn't come off ... at the end of our side road, I slowed, saw nothing was coming, so opened the tap. The back wheel slipped away, so I stepped off ... but forgot to let go of the handlebars, leading to me yanking the twist grip. The bike rear up, and shot away, yanking me with it.  The next hundred yards were covered with me draped over the saddle, feet one side, head the other side, right hand still gripping the twist grip. The C of G moved back ... my position made me yank the grip ... engine picked up ... front wheel lifted ... bike shot down the road with me draped over the saddle ... I closed the throttle ... front wheel dropped ... which jerked me  ... throttle opened ... bike shot away ... wheel lifted ...... I think I went through that sequence about three times before I managed not to yank the throttle as the front wheel landed. Me and the bike hit the tarmac, removed some skin from my arm.

Not wanting to worry Barbara, who may have been waiting to watch me pass a gap in the houses, I remounted,and continued my journey.

On arrival at RAAF Butterworth, I pulled into the Sick Bay, had my arm sprayed with "Honda Rash" .... the purple dye stuff, beloved of bikers. We usually rode in helmet, short sleeve shirt, and shorts.

I once rode home in a monsoon (Barbara on the pillion). The rain was horizontal "stair rods". My bike let it be known that it did not like having wet ignition. It got us home, but spluttery misfire all the way.

Of the 2000ish Brit and Oz personnel at Butterworth, I was told by a Snowdrop, 18 bikers were killed in the two years I was there. One drowned in a monsoon ditch, under his bike.

602

[cornicen]

I spoke to DVLA - got through quite quickly!

The problem is that my photograph they hold is more than 10 years old, but online it says my licence is no longer valid, though it is actually valid for three more months! It would be sensible if the online application refusal was stated to be due to the age of the photograph, rather than stating that the licence is no longer valid... 

[Rob_W]

I think the photo is only valid for "other" use for a few years: I've never been able to use passport/licence for the other as there's about 5 years offset. Having held two UK passports for several years didn't simplify the matter either.....

[Wittsend]

I spoke to DVLA - got through quite quickly!

The problem is that my photograph they hold is more than 10 years old, but online it says my licence is no longer valid, though it is actually valid for three more months! It would be sensible if the online application refusal was stated to be due to the age of the photograph, rather than stating that the licence is no longer valid... 

Result 

The DVLA are the source of the muddle.

Photo driving licenses are only valid for 10 years - you then have to submit a new photo and presumably some wonga 
This 10 year limit catches a lot of people out. There are people out there driving around on old out of date licenses and they don't know it.
Is it a crime ?
 
The "old" paper license is valid until midnight on the day you turn 70.

The photo driving license was a back-door manoeuvre to introduce ID cards on the cheap given that a passport costs £80 (or what ever - and not everyone wants a passport) ... The British people saw through this and collectively we don't want ID cards.

That was then - maybe in these times people do want to have to carry ID papers with them 20/7


 

 

[Craig T]

I hung onto my original paper license that I got on 1993 right up until last year but it was getting increasingly difficult to convince car hire companies in Europe that it was really a valid license!
To be fair to them it was pretty ragged and stuck together with tape..

I got my new license when we moved house 6 months after getting a new passport so the photo was able to be used from that. I checked the entitlements when I got it and still licensed for everything I had before so good to drive the 109" station wagon and tow trailers.

Craig.